The Housing Minister, Esther McVey MP, announced on 12 September 2019 that the Government has made nearly £2m available to local planing authorities to support a crackdown on illegal development with the Green Belt. The funds will be used to step up the identification of and enforcement action against unauthorised development. In the South West, four local authority areas, will receive just under £200k. They are North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Bath and North East Somerset and Dorset. The funds have been allocated from the Planning Delivery Fund, which was intended to provide funding to local authorities and affordable housing providers to contribute to solving the housing crisis. We will expect more calls from the areas concerned as the increased enforcement activity gets underway. In a related issue, the Government is also in the process of reviewing the national planning enforcement handbook and has teamed up with the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) to provide the latest best practice and expertise on shutting down illegal building and preventing it from happening. Brian Dinnis is an associate member of the RTPI and will bee keeping tabs on this.
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